The Habsburg Empire: 19th And 20th Century

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Throughout the 19th and 20th century the Habsburg Empire was the dominant power in all of Europe. At its peak, the Habsburg Empire, spanned much of Eastern Europe and parts of Western Europe, and had various ethnic and regional divisions amongst its kingdom. Each unique ethnic area, or province, of the empire was governed based upon their own respective language, traditions and customs. In theory, this is suitable as it allows for more self-governance of the local government to govern as they see fit. However, over time these various provinces in the empire started to generate more and more problems for the Habsburg Empire. The rise of nationalist movements in these ethnic divisions/provinces caused friction between them and the Habsburg Empire, …show more content…
Pieter Judson discusses the immense size of the empire when he writes “The Habsburgs held territories that today are located in twelve different European countries and that in the late eighteenth century included speakers of languages known today as Croatian, Czech, Flemish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian…… and Yiddish” . An empire of that size with constituents of varying traditions, ethnicities, and cultures ruled by an authority, with no common denominator for all provinces, will eventually have internal problems and unrest. These internal problems were spurred on by the ever-growing feeling of nationalism in Europe. The great French revolution in 1789 essentially marked the start of the decline of absolute monarchies and the rise of republics and liberal democracies. The French revolution was contagious and evoked nationalistic movements throughout Europe. In the book “Poetry of Freedom”, the author writes “As news of the February Revolution in Paris spread, it inspired people seeking change to take to the streets across Europe, including in
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